Catya Sassoon--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 4 Jan 2002 13:31:49 -0800 (PST)



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" Catya Sassoon Was My Friend - We Dated for a Brief Time - I Think of Catya Often!" David Harrison Levi
Friday January 4 2:36 PM ET

Vidal Sassoon Daughter Catya Sassoon Dead at 33

LOS ANGELES - Catya Sassoon, a top junior model during the
1980s and the eldest daughter of famed hairstylist Vidal Sassoon and
actress Beverly Adams Sassoon, has died, her manager said on Friday.
She was 33 and the cause of death was not immediately determined.

Sassoon died in her sleep on Tuesday morning at her home in Hollywood
after attending a New Year's Eve party at a friend's house, her
manager, Hilly Elkins said.

Los Angeles Coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said there was no trauma
to her body and no evidence of foul play. The results of an autopsy and
toxicology reports are pending.

Elkins said Sassoon complained of not feeling well, left the Monday
night party and went home. At about 9:20 a.m. the next day, her
husband, Joe Myers, tried to wake her up but she failed to respond.

The former model had a history of high blood pressure and family
members believe her death ``seems to be associated with a heart
attack,'' Elkins said.

Although she had a history of drug and alcohol abuse in her early days
as a teenage model she had long since kicked the habit, Elkins said,
and she was not known to have been using drugs on New Year's Eve.

FAST AND WILD

Born in New York City, Sassoon grew up in Beverly Hills and was the
eldest of Vidal and Beverly Sassoon's four children. Known for being
fast and wild at an early age, she pierced her nose and dyed her hair
purple at age 13. The next year, at 14, she dropped out of Beverly
Hills High School to become a model in New York.

By age 16 she was married to the first of two husbands, Luca Scalisi,
and a rising star on the modeling scene in New York, appearing on the
covers of Seventeen, Bride and other magazines.

In 1990 Catya and her mother, Beverly, toured the country promoting
Beverly Sassoon's Pocket Books ``Fantasies'' novel. The two women
openly discussed how they overcame addiction problems.

At that time, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times, Beverly
Sassoon said that she was three years clear of an alcohol addiction and
that Catya, then 22, was about to celebrate one year free from ``a drug
habit that was so tough there were times I felt I was going to lose
her.''

In addition to her successful modeling career Catya Sassoon appeared in
more than 20 films including ``Tuff Turf'' with James Spader and Robert
Downey, Jr., ``Bloodfist IV: Die Trying,'' ``The Hunted,'' ``Modern
Girls,'' and ``Hollywood Kids.''

She also appeared in television shows and as lead singer for the band
Feline Force.

In addition to Myers, she is survived by her parents, siblings, twin
daughters and a son.